MURDER OF TIPPIT
Speculations on the murder of Tippit centered about assertions that he was elsewhere than he was supposed to be when he was shot, that he knew the man who shot him, and that the description of the murderer given by one of the eyewitnesses did not fit Oswald’s description.
The Commission found that Tippit was unquestionably patrolling in an area to which he had been directed by police headquarters. There was no evidence to support the speculation that Tippit and Oswald knew each other or had ever seen each other before. The description of the murderer imputed to one of the witnesses was denied by her and had no support from any other eyewitness.
Speculation.—Tippit was driving alone in his police car even though standing orders for police in Dallas were that radio cars of the type Tippit was driving must have two policemen in them.
Commission finding.—Dallas police officials stated that department policy required about 80 percent of the patrolmen on the day shift, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., to work alone. Tippit was one of the patrolmen assigned to work alone that day.[A12-50]
Speculation.—Tippit was violating an order he had received the day before not to leave the sector to which he had been assigned. This sector was supposed to be in downtown Dallas at the time he stopped Oswald.
Commission finding.—A review of Tippit’s file in the Dallas Police Department and the department’s radio log revealed that following the shooting of the President, Tippit was directed to move into and remain in the central Oak Cliff area available for any emergency.[A12-51]
Speculation.—The police had been withdrawn from the area in which Tippit found Oswald.
Commission finding.—Other police cars were operating in the Oak Cliff area at the same time as Tippit. They participated in the subsequent search for and apprehension of Tippit’s slayer.[A12-52]
Speculation.—Tippit violated a procedure governing radio cars when he failed to notify headquarters that he was stopping to question a suspect.
Commission finding.—The Dallas Police Department had no requirement or regulation for police officers to notify headquarters when stopping to question a suspect. Therefore, Tippit did not violate any police radio procedure in failing to notify the radio dispatcher that he was stopping Oswald.[A12-53]
Speculation.—Tippit could not have recognized Oswald from the description sent out over the police radio.
Commission finding.—There is no certain way of knowing whether Tippit recognized Oswald from the description put out by the police radio. The Dallas Police Department radio log shows that the police radio dispatcher at 1:29 p.m. noted a similarity between the broadcast descriptions of the President’s assassin and Tippit’s slayer. It is conceivable, even probable, that Tippit stopped Oswald because of the description broadcast by the police radio.[A12-54]
Speculation.—Tippit and his killer knew each other.
Commission finding.—Investigation has revealed no evidence that Oswald and Tippit were acquainted, had ever seen each other, or had any mutual acquaintances. Witnesses to the shooting observed no signs of recognition between the two men.[A12-55]
Speculation.—Mrs. Helen Markham, a witness to the slaying of Tippit, put the time at just after 1:06 p.m. This would have made it impossible for Oswald to have committed the killing since he would not have had time to arrive at the shooting scene by that time.
Commission finding.—The shooting of Tippit has been established at approximately 1:15 or 1:16 p.m. on the basis of a call to police headquarters on Tippit’s car radio by another witness to the assassination, Domingo Benavides. In her various statements and in her testimony, Mrs. Markham was uncertain and inconsistent in her recollection of the exact time of the slaying.[A12-56]
Speculation.—Mrs. Helen Markham is the only witness to the killing of Tippit.
Commission finding.—Other witnesses to the killing of Tippit include Domingo Benavides, who used Tippit’s car radio to notify the police dispatcher of the killing at 1:16 p.m., and William Scoggins, a cabdriver parked at the corner of 10th Street and Patton Avenue. Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis saw a man with a pistol in his hand walk across their lawn immediately after they heard the sound of the shots that killed Tippit. The man emptied the shells from his pistol and turned the corner from 10th Street onto Patton Avenue. All of these witnesses, except Benavides, subsequently picked Oswald out of a lineup as the slayer. Benavides did not feel that he could make a positive identification and never attended a lineup for the purpose.[A12-57]
Speculation.—Mrs. Markham said that the man she saw shooting Tippit was about 30, short, with bushy hair, and wearing a white coat. Since Oswald does not fit this description he could not be the killer.
Commission finding.—In evaluating Helen Markham’s testimony the Commission is aware of allegations that she described the killer of Patrolman Tippit as short, stocky, and with bushy hair, which would not be a correct description of Oswald. It has also been alleged that Mrs. Markham identified Oswald in the lineup because of his clothing rather than his appearance. When Oswald appeared in the lineup at which Mrs. Markham was present, he was not wearing the jacket which he wore at the time of the shooting, and Mrs. Markham has testified that her identification was based “mostly from his face.”[A12-58] Moreover, Mrs. Markham has denied that she ever described the man who killed Tippit as short, stocky, and with bushy hair. The Commission reviewed the transcript of a telephone conversation in which Mrs. Markham was alleged to have made such a description. In the transcription Mrs. Markham reaffirmed her positive identification of Oswald and denied having described the killer as short, stocky, and bushy haired.[A12-59]
Speculation.—Another witness to the slaying of Patrolman Tippit, an unidentified woman, was interviewed by the FBI but was never called as a witness by the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. This witness is alleged to have stated that she saw two men involved in the shooting and that they ran off in opposite directions afterward.
Commission finding.—The only woman among the witnesses to the slaying of Tippit known to the Commission is Helen Markham. The FBI never interviewed any other woman who claimed to have seen the shooting and never received any information concerning the existence of such a witness. Two women, Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis, saw the killer immediately after the shooting as he crossed the lawn at the corner of Patton Avenue and 10th Street, but they did not witness the shooting itself. They were both interviewed by the FBI and appeared before the Commission. The Commission has no evidence that there was any witness to the slaying other than those identified in chapter IV.[A12-60]
Speculation.—No witness saw Oswald between the time he was supposed to have reloaded his gun near the scene of the slaying and his appearance at the shoestore on Jefferson Boulevard.
Commission finding.—Six witnesses identified Oswald as the man they saw in flight after the murder of Tippit. The killer was seen, gun in hand, by Ted Callaway and Sam Guinyard in the block of Patton Avenue between 10th Street and Jefferson Boulevard after the shooting of Tippit. They saw him run to Jefferson and turn right. On the evening of November 22, Callaway and Guinyard picked Oswald out of a police lineup as the man they saw with the gun. Two other men, Warren Reynolds and Pat Patterson, saw a man with a pistol in his hand running south on Patton Avenue. They followed him for a block on Jefferson Boulevard and then lost sight of him. Both men subsequently identified pictures of Oswald as the man they saw with the gun. Harold Russell also saw a man with a gun running south on Patton Avenue and later identified him from pictures as Oswald. Mrs. Mary Brock saw a man she later identified as Oswald walk at a fast pace into the parking lot behind the service station at the corner of Jefferson and Crawford, where Oswald’s jacket was found shortly after.[A12-61]
Speculation.—When Oswald left his roominghouse at about 1 p.m. on November 22 he had on a zipper-type tan plaid jacket.
Commission finding.—The jacket that Oswald was wearing at the time of the slaying of Tippit was a light-gray jacket. According to Marina Oswald, her husband owned only two jackets—one blue and the other light gray. The housekeeper at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, Mrs. Earlene Roberts, was not certain about the color of the jacket that Oswald was wearing when he left the house.[A12-62]
Speculation.—Oswald wore an olive-brown plain jacket which is visible in all the pictures of him after his arrest.
Commission finding.—At the time of his arrest, Oswald was not wearing a jacket. The jacket that was subsequently recovered in a parking lot and identified as Oswald’s was a light-gray one. There are no witnesses who have stated that Oswald was wearing an olive-brown jacket immediately before or after his arrest. The Commission has seen no pictures of Oswald taken subsequent to his arrest that show him in such a jacket. Pictures taken shortly after his arrest show him in the shirt that Mrs. Bledsoe described him as wearing when she saw him on the bus at approximately 1:40 p.m.[A12-63]
Speculation.—Oswald’s landlady, Mrs. A. C. Johnson, said that Oswald never had a gun in the room.
Commission finding.—In her testimony before the Commission, Mrs. Johnson said that he “never brought that rifle in my house. * * * He could have had this pistol, I don’t know, because they found the scabbard.”[A12-64] As shown in chapter IV, Oswald kept his rifle in the Paine garage in Irving while he was living in Dallas during October and November. The pistol was small and easily concealed.[A12-65]
Speculation.—There was absolutely no place to hide a gun in Oswald’s room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue.
Commission finding.—In the search of Oswald’s room after his apprehension police found a pistol holster. Oswald’s landlady, Mrs. A. C. Johnson, stated that she had not seen the holster before. There is no reason to believe that Oswald could not have had both a pistol and the holster hidden in the room. Oswald’s pistol was a small one with the barrel cut down to 2¼ inches. It could have been concealed in a pocket of his clothes.[A12-66]
Speculation.—Oswald did not pick up the revolver from his room at 1 p.m.
Commission finding.—There is reason to believe that Oswald did pick up the revolver from his room, probably concealing it beneath his jacket. This likelihood is reinforced by the finding of the pistol holster in the room after the assassination, since this indicates that Oswald did not store the pistol at the home of Mrs. Paine where he spent the night before the assassination.[A12-67]
Speculation.—No one saw Oswald enter the Texas Theatre.
Commission finding.—A nearby shoe store manager, Johnny C. Brewer, and the theatre cashier, Julia Postal, saw Oswald enter the lobby of the theatre from where he went on into the theatre proper.[A12-68]
Speculation.—Not a single one of the people in the Texas Theatre at the time of Oswald’s arrest has come forward or been brought forward to give an eyewitness account of the arrest.
Commission finding.—Johnny C. Brewer, the shoe store manager, and two patrons of the theatre—John Gibson and George Jefferson Applin, Jr.—were present in the theatre and testified before the Commission on the circumstances of Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theatre. Only 6 or 7 people were seated on the main floor of the theatre.[A12-69]
Speculation.—There is no independent witness aside from the police who testified that Oswald was carrying a gun when arrested by the police.
Commission finding.—Johnny Brewer testified before the Commission that he saw Oswald pull a gun and that he saw it taken away from him by a policeman.[A12-70]